Track Listing

1. Let's Misbehave - Irving Aaronson & His Commanders
2. My Blue Heaven - Gene Austin
3. Collegiate - Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians
4. Alice Blue Gown - Edith Day
5. Little Orphan Annie - The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks
6. Lucky Lindy - Nat Shilkret & His Orchestra
7. Varsity Drag - George Olsen & His Music
8. Do Do Do - Gertrude Lawrence
9. Whispering - Paul Whiteman Orchestra
10. I Wanna Be Loved by You - Helen Kane
11. Black Bottom - Johnny Hamp
12. Makin' Whoopee - Eddie Cantor
13. Charleston - Paul Whiteman Orchestra
14. Prisoner's Song - Vernon Dalhart
15. My Pretty Girl - Jean Goldkette & His Orchestra
16. My Man - Fanny Brice
17. Black and Tan Fantasy - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
18. Louise - Maurice Chevalier
19. If I Had a Talking Picture of You - Johnny Hamp's Kentucky Serenaders
20. Rhapsody in Blue - George Gershwin, Paul Whiteman Orchestra

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4298 in Music
• Brand: RCA
• Released on: 1990-08-21
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

10 STARS: WE NEED MORE LIKE THIS!!!
I was so glad when this CD came in the mail today. I love it! To be able to hear the **actual** recordings people were listening to 80 years ago is phenomenal. Sure the sound quality is not the greatest and the recordings abound with surface noise of all sorts. But that only adds to the pleasure of listening to this CD. Its just as if we were listening to the old victrola itself! (Remember, the 78's that we are familiar with hadn't even been perfected yet). Consider further that many of the recordings on this disc were made without the use of any electricity. They are all a lot nicer to listen to than most of the garbage that has come out of the record companies in the last 20-30 years.

Hats off to RCA for releasing a collection like this. Its so wonderful to hear what popular music was like so many years ago. We need more collections like this! Maybe some with even earlier recordings!?!

rev up the victrola and whip up the gin rickeys
Track #4 is "Alice Blue Gown," not "Nice Blue Gown" as indicated. Other than that, this is a great selection of music from the era of F.Scott Fitzgerald, Joe Kennedy, chorus girls, vaudeville and hot toddies. Many of the songs live on today, for example, Frank Sinatra and many others have updated Makin' Whoopee. And it ends with a smashing version of Rhapsody in Blue with George Gershwin himself on piano, and backed with an orchestra. Plus on many of the tracks you can hear the sound of the needle travelingover the record, which only adds to the visceral thrill of hearing a long bygone era.

This is the BEE'S KNEES!
23 skidoo to the checkout button and shimmy away with this one kiddy! All the flappers are shakin their gams to this one! All you need is a speakeasy and some hooch and you'll be the bee's knees too! The opening track "Let's Misbehave" got me hooked on this CD. "Collegiate" makes a girl bob her hair and a guy grab his Racoon coat. "Charleston" will have you knocking your knees in notime. About half of the tracks are acoustical recordings (imagine that -- no electricity involved whatsoever! It's made by the impact of their voices on the record ALONE!) and the other half are "electrical" made after about 1925. I bought this when it hit the market several years ago and it remains one of my favorites.